The New York Central System, The Water Level Route

Like its rival, the Pennsylvania Railroad, entire libraries could be written on the New York Central System
(the “System” was included to recognize the markets the railroad served
and the number of railroads which comprised it) and its history ranging
from its famous passenger trains (like the 20th Century Limited) and commuter operations to its fast, efficient, high-speed freight services. For history’s sake you cannot really speak of the NYC without also mentioning the PRR (and vice versa) as both lines competed in many of the same markets stretching from New York City, through Ohio, Indiana and reaching St. Louis, Chicago and parts of Michigan. It’s quite amazing
how similar, outside of operations, both were. They were institutions,
two of the largest railroads in the country, and the class of the
industry for decades.

One of its famous 4-6-4 Hudsons, Class J-1 #5280, speeds under the wires with a passenger train at Lynndale, Ohio on May 27, 1940.

In a perfect world both the New York Central System and Pennsy
would have found other, more logical merger partners and likely would
still be competing today, thus completely changing the landscape
and history of the industry. However, we do not live in a perfect
world, of course, and despite all of their success both wound up making
horrendous decisions during their final years of independence and die a
horrible death as the Penn Central Corporation in 1968 (aside from
competing in virtually every market, from a management and operations
standpoint they were polar opposites, which became painfully clear upon
merger day when their management teams could not work together). The NYC had its humble beginnings as the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad, chartered and built in 1831 to connect Albany with Schenectady, New York.

In an attempt to build a route connecting Albany with the Great Lakes at Buffalo, a series of railroads where constructed that would be incorporated as the original New York
Central Railroad in 1853. Around this same time its most famous
president, Cornelius Vanderbilt, who oversaw significant growth of the
railroad and laid its future foundations as a world-class carrier, would
head the new NYC. He immediately changed the railroad’s name to the New York Central
& Hudson River Railroad when he merged the NYC with his own Hudson
River Railroad. Later including the New York & Harlem as well, the
NYC&HR now held a commanding presence in New York City and after
gaining control of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern it reached
Chicago on a northern route that was virtually flat (late known as the
Water Level Route), in comparison to Pennsylvania Railroad’s main line
through the Alleghenies.

With Chicago's skyline as a backdrop, an NYC passenger train pulls out of the LaSalle Street Station train shed on July 17, 1947.

The NYC&HR was again renamed as the New York Central Railroad
when it merged with the LS&MS in 1914. Throughout the early 20th
century the
NYC continued to expand reaching Boston; Pittsburgh,
PA; Wheeling, WV; the coalfields of southern West Virginia via the
Toledo & Ohio Central; Columbus, OH; Cincinnati, Cleveland, and St.
Louis via the Big Four Route (the Cincinnati, Cleveland, Chicago &
St. Louis Railroad), Columbus, OH; Detroit (and virtually the rest of
Michigan via the Michigan Central); and even Montreal, Quebec and
Ontario, Canada. Through the years the railroad gained control of
notable railroads to reach these markets including the Pittsburgh &
Lake Erie, Indiana Harbor Belt, and the aforementioned Big Four.

It's not surprising then that comprising a system which reached such
large cities and markets, the Central would grow to become the largest
and most dominate
railroad in the east, save for the PRR herself. Throughout the first
half of the 20th century the PRR and New York Central System commanded
an astounding amount of
freight and passenger traffic moving from the Northeast to Midwest and
were literally the only true competitors in the east. Third in this
trunk line race was the venerable Baltimore & Ohio but with only a
minor presence in the Philadelphia, New York, and Boston
markets and a main line that was forced over the rugged Alleghenies
between Harpers Ferry and Parkersburg, West Virginia the Baltimore &
Ohio was no match for the PRR
and NYC in terms of speed and freight/passenger traffic (although,
interestingly, the B&O outlived its competitors by 20 years!).

While the Central had a large and exquisite passenger train fleet
(far too many to mention and name here) the flagship was without doubt
the 20th Century Limited, which operated over the railroad’s
entire system from New York to Chicago. Arguably the most regal
passenger train ever created the Limited was adorned in grays,
silvers, and whites and ushered in the Art Deco era of interior design
when it was streamlined in 1938 (and one could only hope to find a seat
on the Limited, let alone afford a ticket!).
The New York Central System is remembered for many things but perhaps
the railroad’s crowning achievement was its Grand Central Terminal
located in downtown New York City. Opened in 1913, three years after
the Pennsy opened its Pennsylvania Station, GCT replaced the earlier
Grand Central Station and held an impressive 48-tracks below ground.

Streamlined NYC Class L-2 4-8-2 Mohawk #2783 powers The Rexall Train through Whitehall, Montana during June of 1936. This promotional demonstration run occurred between March and November of that year touring 47 of the then 48-state Union to promote Rexall drug stores. In all, the train made stops in 147 cities in the United States and Canada.

The terminal was beautifully adorned inside and out (as only the
Vanderbilt family would allow), and it served NYC trains through the
end. Today it thankfully still stands and not only continues to haul
commuters (intercity trains stopped calling to the station years ago)
but is also a National Historic Landmark and one of New York’s best
recognized landmarks. While the end of WWII signaled the beginning of a
traffic
decline that would result in the entire Northeastern rail market
bankrupt and in shambles by the 1970s, the NYC actually began to see a
reversal of fortunes beginning in mid-1950s when
new president Alfred Perlman was elected. Under his guidance the
railroad began an aggressive campaign to upgrade the railroad and make
the NYC as efficient as possible.

In doing so he completely dieselized
the locomotive fleet, built new classification yards, and introduced new
innovative marketing schemes such as Flexi-Van service (the trains
themselves were known as Super Vans), an idea far ahead of its time, which was the first successful application of Container-On-Flat-Car service (or COFC).
Despite this success the future of the railroad was still
uncertain as an independent carrier. However, the PRR was in far worse
shape and nowhere near profitable by the late 1950s. It was during
this time that the two began exploring the idea of merger, despite
Perlman’s protest to find another partner besides the PRR (fully
realizing what a mistake such an idea would be).

Cleveland Union Terminal Class P-2b motor #217 pulls a passenger train through Lynndale, Ohio on May 27, 1940. The CUT was a subsidiary of the NYC and carried out its Cleveland operations under wires.

The NYC looked long and hard to find another partner
but could find no serious interest and it lost out on a bid for the
B&O to the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway in the early 1960s (perhaps
the best fit for the NYC, a southern road with new marketing
opportunities). In the end and despite a long search for another
partner it
was eventually decided that a merger with the PRR was the only option
for the New York Central System. Surprisingly the ICC approved the
merger that virtually allowed for a monopoly in the Northeast and the
ill-fated Penn Central Corporation was born on February 1, 1968.

On merger day chaos ensued and the new railroad literally began
to fall apart from the very beginning. With a merger that was not only a
terrible fit but also unplanned it comes as no surprise that the
situation would end in bankruptcy. To make matters worse the NYC and
PRR could not have had more opposite corporate cultures. The management
of the NYC was more laid back, open to new ideas, and the chain of
command was
“loose” so to speak (one reason for its renewed success in the 1950s
under Perlman) whereas the PRR was extremely strict, new ideas were
shunned and looked down on (the railroad was still using practices that
had been out-dated since the 19th century!), and orders came down
through the chain of command. Naturally, then, these two management
teams did not get along at all and pure hell and pandemonium resulted
across the entire system.

Two NYC Pacifics, #4695 and #4722, power a freight train past the depot at Elkhart, Indiana on December 11, 1948.

The PC was losing over $1 million a day and trains were becoming lost
throughout the system, as dispatchers were not properly trained on how
to dispatch their trains. To make matters worse as the red ink began to
become an unstoppable flash flood maintenance was deferred and
derailments became the norm with large sections of main line reduced to
10 mph slow orders.
After only two years of operations and financial assistance completely
gone, the destitute Penn Central officially declared bankruptcy on June
21, 1970. The result of this was a ripple effect throughout the entire Northeast,
as other railroads, which depended on the PC to ferry traffic, no
longer had a means to move their freight. It became so bad that the
Penn Central was facing total shutdown if financial assistance, any
means of help at all, were not located.

(A deep thanks to the Museum of the Rockies at Montana State
University for allowing Ron Nixon's historic collection of the NYC to be featured here.)

It's well into the Penn Central era and the giant has already declared bankruptcy when two PC SD45s, #6144 and #6230, power a freight through North Tonawanda, New York along the Niagara Falls Branch on August 14, 1973.

Realizing the severity of the situation the federal government
stepped and setup the Consolidated Rail Corporation, which comprised
the skeletons of several bankrupt Northeastern carriers, and began
operations on April 1, 1976. With federal backing Conrail began to
slowly pull out of the red
ink (it took many years) and by the late 1980s was a profitable railroad
after thousands of miles of excess trackage (and sometimes perhaps not
so excess when compared to today’s boom of the industry) was abandoned
and/or upgraded.
Today even Conrail is no longer with us having been split up amongst CSX
Transportation and Norfolk Southern in 1999, with CSX taking much of
the NYC while NS got a good chunk of the Pennsy. In any event many
parts of the railroad continue to serve an important role
in moving goods (and people) from eastern markets to the Midwest and
vice versa (such as its main line Water Level Route).